Montenegro

Conceptual urban and architectural solutions for the remediated tailing mine impound in Mojkovac, North Montenegro

Podgorica, 23 February 2010

The Ministry for Spatial Planning and Environment, Municipality of Mojkovac and UNDP Montenegro organized an exhibition of design work from the conceptual urban and architectural solutions competition for the sports and recreation area with supporting facilities in the section of the remediated Lead and Zinc Tailing Mine Impound in Mojkovac. Beside presenting design proposals, the aim of the exhibition was also to present an idea about transformation of then environmental hot spot into a space fully compliant with the principles of sustainable development.

The Competition was announced with a goal to explore expert public attitudes, primarily architects and urbanist designers as well as architecture students, to the possibilities for optimal usage of the mentioned space including modern architecture’s expression, careful way of dealing with the environment and respecting sustainable building principles. 17 applications that came from the country and abroad confirmed great interest in the competition. The Expert Jury selected seven design proposals of which five were awarded and two were bought up.
 
Initiators of the Competition were the Ministry for Spatial Planning and Environment, Municipality of Mojkovac and UNDP Montenegro, within the „Spatial Planning Support Project in Montenegro“ financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and the Project for remediation of Lead and Zinc Tailing Mine Impound in Mojkovac as part of the Western Balkans Regional Environmental Programme financed by the Government of the Netherlands.

*          *          *

The first prize at the conceptual urban and architectural solutions competition for the sports and recreation area with supporting facilities in the section of the remediated Lead and Zinc Tailing Mine Impound in Mojkovac went to the design proposal under the code „Metamorphosis” by a team of authors led by dr Rifat Alihodžić. According to the authors, the name was derived from the fact that one environmental hot spot - a product of waste waters from the mine and fecal sewage in Mojkovac - can be upgraded to a sports and recreation area.

Architects Rifat Alihodžić, Elvira Muzurović, Ema Alihodžić and Tijana Radević envisioned transforming of the tailing impound into a location with a football terrain, skating ring, flowers labyrinth, four tennis courts, two volleyball, two basketball and two handball playgrounds. The entire recreational complex should be connected via pedestrian bridge to the eco-village on the other side of the river Tara.

“This zone should not be viewed only as a benefit for Mojkovac but it should also support the development of tourism facilities in the Bjelasica mountain, rafting on Tara river and all other recreational activities that take place in that area,” explained dr Alihodžić.

At the opening of the exhibition H. E. Mr. Branimir Gvozdenović, Minister of Spatial Planning and Environment said: “This project symbolizes a joint work that we do in a triangle of international donors, local Self-government and Ministry. Such a joint work engages full capacities that exist in all these institutions for the purpose of exchanging knowledge and strengthening capacities - in the way that led to one such important product. What used to be a hot environmental point in Montenegro has now come to the point of full transformation that indicates a transformation of society and consciousness and suggests that we should not create hot spots and remediate them afterwards by spending 12 million euros. And yet, we have come to a solution that should become a new symbol of the municipality and encourage development of the city, and that should provide for the people in this area to be pleased to live and reside in Mojkovac instead of migrating.”

Minister Gvozdenović invited investors and international donors to join in and aid the project of reconstruction of the ex-tailing impound that greatly exceeds the budget of the Municipality. He added that the Government of Montenegro is determined to support this project, as demonstrated over the past seven years during the remediation efforts.

Mr. Miladin Mitrović, Mayor of Mojkovac Municipality said: „Through spatial and architectural ideas, urban construction and forming aesthetic, through texts, drawings and photos - 18 hectares of space were visionarily transformed by the competition participants into a sports and recreational gold point of Mojkovac and Montenegro. And, just like the chemists daydreamed about making gold out of lead and zinc, the people of Mojkovac craved turning of their environmental hot spot into an ecological gold spot, and wonderfully and incredibly, slowly but surely it is coming true.”

Mayor of Mojkovac Mr. Mitrović hopes that the project would be finished in next seven years. “We will wait for investors, but if no one offers help we will start working in phases. The project is such that certain segments could be built in phases,” he explained.

“The tailing mine impound in Mojkovac was for a long time called ’the silent killer of the town’ but also of investments that could potentially come,“ said Mr. Alexander Avanessov, UN Resident Coordinator/ UNDP Resident Representative to Montenegro. „I can say that we are proud to have together with our partners made it easy to preserve the Tara River from possible contamination. Therefore, I want again to stress that this is not only about the project of remediation of a certain area but also about a development project, too. After two years of work on the remediation of the tailing mine impound it is my dream to see the first sports terrains in only two years,” said Mr. Avanessov and he added that the remediation of the hotspot in Mojkovac is a real turning point for the poor municipality that was previously evaded by investors for its ecological problems. “We hope technical remediation of the tailing mine impound and its transformation to a tourism and recreational area will turn an ecological threat to an opportunity for development. And, I strongly believe that this concept can be successfully replicated in the other areas of Montenegro, especially in the North,” Mr. Avanessov concluded.

 *          *          *

The main aim of the conceptual urban and architectural solutions competition for the sports and recreation area with supporting facilities in the section of the remediated Lead and Zinc Tailing Mine Impound in Mojkovac was to stir up experts, first of all architects - urban planners and students of architecture to think about possibilities of optimal exploitation of this area by applying contemporary architectonic expressions with respect to principles of sustainable construction, energy efficiency and economic feasibility of the design.

The interest in the Competition was great, 17 proposals came from Montenegro and abroad. This proves that the experts and future young architects from Montenegro have plenty of sincere appreciation for the environment, ideas and knowledge on how to plan constructions in a sustainable way.  

The tailing mine impound in Mojkovac was for a long time called “the silent killer of the town” from two aspects: environmental by polluting the town and economic by demoralizing investment holders. The UNDP’s goal was to use the synergy of different projects such as Hot spot remediation and Spatial planning to totally reverse these effects. Through the partnership of the Ministry of spatial planning and environment, Municipality of Mojkovac, Government of the Nederlands, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and UNDP, the ecological threat was eliminated and at the same time opportunities were created for a sustainable development of the Municipality through appropriate spatial planning, small business development and increasing ability for long term strategic planning.

Therefore, the Exibition of design work from the conceptual urban and architectural solutions competition for the sports and recreation area with supporting facilities in the section of the remediated Lead and Zinc Tailing Mine Impound in Mojkovac was organized with additional specific aim: to promote the concept of transformation of what used to be an environmental „hot spot“ to an attractive area in line with the principles of sustainable development. 

In 2007 the UNDP Country Office Montenegro thru the regional Western Balkans Environmental Programme financed by the Government of the Netherlands started the project for Remediation and recultivation of the Tailing mine impound of lead and zinc mine Brskovo that should lead to economic revitalization of the Municipality of Mojkovac. Once the Project finished, the municipality will be able to use its full natural potentials and provide solid ground for creation of local and international partnerships as a basis for any future development of the area regardless of whether it will regard tourism or any other developmental path.

The remediation of the tailing mine impound will remove the main barrier to investment in the Municipality. In parallel to that process, UNDP in cooperation with the Municipality of Mojkovac works on establishing and implementing the strategy for sustainable development that will focus on economic valorization of protected areas, organic agriculture, nature based tourism, capacity building for municipal officials for implementation of the environmental management legislation, and support for small and medium local businesses. 

Beside clean-up activities, the Project “Remediation and recultivation of the Mojkovac lead and zinc tailings mine impound” has demonstrated concrete results of benefits of good environmental management to local communities through concrete pilot projects: demonstration of a notion that avoiding pollution than retroactively dealing with its consequences is financially and environmentally cheaper through focusing on sustainable development initiatives that are job and income generators through pilot projects in areas of:

a) development of  kayaking, hiking and biking,
b) support to organic food production, and
c) diversification of a tourism offer through inclusion and valorization of municipality’s natural and historical heritage.
 
In addition, UNDP helps in working on:
a) strengthening the local government’s capacity to develop and implement local environmental policies and investment projects;
b) facilitating the participatory development of local plans and programmes such as physical or urban planning, regional development plans, management plans, and specific infrastructure projects.

Also, by establishing a database of national experts who will form a critical mass of knowledge and expertise for implementation of environmental management legislation we will help in enhancing regional co-operation through improved information sharing process and improvement of professional consultancy services regarding good environmental management.